World War II and the Conscientious Objector Overseas

The Gestapo, Nazi Germany’s feared secret police force, was created by Hermann Goring, and controlled during World War II by Heinrich Himmler. The Gestapo’s greatest weapon was the fear that it created—terrorism at that early date.

During an interview at the Nuremberg Trials, Goring described how denouncing and outlawing pacifism was an important part of the Nazis’ seizure of power: “The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”

To some extent, this happened in the United States during the Civil War, and certainly during World War I. Justice was ignored. In Germany, Goring said of his work, “I don’t have to worry about Justice; my mission is only to destroy and to exterminate; nothing more.”

We trust in a semblance of justice in these days, but in such a volatile society, who knows what the truly conscientious objector may face in the years ahead. It is not enough to simply object to carnal warfare, the objection must be genuine, deep-seated, “conscientious.” Less than this will never stand when verbal and physical persecution comes. Further, if your daily living is not Christian living, you have no real right to claim to follow the Prince of Peace in this matter of war.

In 1934 Goring handed the control of the Gestapo to Himmler, and this ruthless successor is remembered as one of the most brutal mass murders in history. Himmler died in 1945, Goring in 1946, both of suicide . . . “but after this, the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

For all their evil, and for all our careless living, “God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing . . . for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done” (Ecclesiastes 12:14; 2 Corinthians 5:10).

The Light, Vol. 28, No. 7; July 2017.

[Note: The draft in America is no more but we know that it could be reinstated if there is a threat of war. It is now that we should prepare and make sure of our beliefs and what the Bible says about such subjects as love, nonresistance, war, hatred, and the like. There could be another Himmler or Goring again. Let us be prepared! RH]